I can attest that I am a changed person in relation to the initial living state I was compared to now. My life is now different since I feel fulfilled with what I have achieved with these transfers. I am now a happy and confident mother unlike before. Poverty had instilled fear in me and I was an unhappy mother due to the fact of lacking to provide basic needs for my family. My future is bright, no more stress in my life and my children are going to school comfortably unlike before when they could spent most of the time at home due to school fees.

GiveDirectly has no fault as far as I know it. It has improved the lives of many, including myself through the transfers we were sent. From the transfers, we have built comfortable houses, paid school fees for our children as well as purchased livestock and fed our families. Everything has been so smooth in my experience with GiveDirectly, and so there isn't anything they haven't done well.

One of my greatest desires in life has been to build a decent, comfortable house for my family of four. This has been impossible to achieve, however, since I was unemployed, until a few weeks ago. We, therefore, lived in a small, dilapidated house that was falling apart. When we received the first transfer, we started building a better house, but could not complete it since the money was not enough. For this reason, I was elated when I received this second transfer. I purchased materials including timber and iron sheets, to complete the construction of my new house. The material and labour costs amounted to KES 25,000. I plan to spend the remaining amount of KES 28,150 to acquire ten goats that I hope to exchange for oxen later on.

It was around 2 PM when I was preparing lunch for my children then I heard a message ton from my phone. Since I am illiterate, I asked for hand in help from my helper. Upon checking, she realized that it was the long-awaited Mpesa message that I had anxiously been waiting for. It was from GiveDirectly, they had finally fulfilled their promise. I felt so happy and thanked them for the gift which I was positive would transform my entire life.

The biggest difference in my daily life is that, through the cahs transfer, I was able to construct a very beautiful spacious house for my children. Before GiveDirectly came into my life, we used to shelter under a very small house that could not accommodate my other family members. Since they are all grown-ups, they had to seek shelter in or relatives' houses every night which was frustrating at some point. As a parent, I felt I had failed my children becasue of what they were going through. However, after receiving the money I had to prioritize constructing a new house for them to avoid being seen as beggars in society. I glad the story has now changed becasue they no longer seek shelter from anyone as it was their daily routine, also we are capable of welcoming visitors since we have an extra room for that purpose. Courtesy of GiveDirectly

I spent part of my first transfer on buying some building materials such as iron sheets, building poles, timber, nails, thread, and a wooden door. This was for the construction of a new house for my children since our previous one was very small and with the nine family members, it could not accommodate us all. I also used KES 8200 of the transfers on paying the mason as labor charge. Also, I cleared school fees for my son KES 7000, and he is now studying peacefully. With the remaining amount, I am using it in buying foodstuffs for the family that would a least take us to three weeks.